The Tempest

Gonzalo. By'r lakin, I can go no further, sir;
My old bones ache: here's a maze trod indeed
1555Through forth-rights and meanders! By your patience,
I needs must rest me.

Alonso. Old lord, I cannot blame thee,
Who am myself attach'd with weariness,
To the dulling of my spirits: sit down, and rest.
1560Even here I will put off my hope and keep it
No longer for my flatterer: he is drown'd
Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks
Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go.

Antonio. [Aside to SEBASTIAN] I am right glad that he's so
1565out of hope.
Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose
That you resolved to effect.

Sebastian. [Aside to ANTONIO] The next advantage
Will we take throughly.
1570

Antonio. [Aside to SEBASTIAN] Let it be to-night;
For, now they are oppress'd with travel, they
Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance
As when they are fresh.

Sebastian. A living drollery. Now I will believe
1585That there are unicorns, that in Arabia
There is one tree, the phoenix' throne, one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.

Antonio. I'll believe both;
And what does else want credit, come to me,
1590And I'll be sworn 'tis true: travellers ne'er did
lie,
Though fools at home condemn 'em.

Gonzalo. If in Naples
I should report this now, would they believe me?
1595If I should say, I saw such islanders—
For, certes, these are people of the island—
Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note,
Their manners are more gentle-kind than of
Our human generation you shall find
1600Many, nay, almost any.

Prospero. [Aside] Honest lord,
Thou hast said well; for some of you there present
Are worse than devils.

Alonso. I cannot too much muse
1605Such shapes, such gesture and such sound, expressing,
Although they want the use of tongue, a kind
Of excellent dumb discourse.

Gonzalo. Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were boys,
1615Who would believe that there were mountaineers
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em
Wallets of flesh? or that there were such men
Whose heads stood in their breasts? which now we find
Each putter-out of five for one will bring us
1620Good warrant of.

Alonso. I will stand to and feed,
Although my last: no matter, since I feel
The best is past. Brother, my lord the duke,
Stand to and do as we.
1625[Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL, like a]harpy; claps his wings upon the table; and,
with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes]

Ariel. You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
That hath to instrument this lower world
1630And what is in't, the never-surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up you; and on this island
Where man doth not inhabit; you 'mongst men
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad;
And even with such-like valour men hang and drown
1635Their proper selves.
[ALONSO, SEBASTIAN &c. draw their swords]You fools! I and my fellows
Are ministers of Fate: the elements,
Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well
1640Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
One dowle that's in my plume: my fellow-ministers
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt,
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths
1645And will not be uplifted. But remember—
For that's my business to you—that you three
From Milan did supplant good Prospero;
Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it,
Him and his innocent child: for which foul deed
1650The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso,
They have bereft; and do pronounce by me:
Lingering perdition, worse than any death
1655Can be at once, shall step by step attend
You and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from—
Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls
Upon your heads—is nothing but heart-sorrow
And a clear life ensuing.
1660[He vanishes in thunder; then, to soft music]enter the Shapes again, and dance, with
mocks and mows, and carrying out the table]

Prospero. Bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou
Perform'd, my Ariel; a grace it had, devouring:
1665Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated
In what thou hadst to say: so, with good life
And observation strange, my meaner ministers
Their several kinds have done. My high charms work
And these mine enemies are all knit up
1670In their distractions; they now are in my power;
And in these fits I leave them, while I visit
Young Ferdinand, whom they suppose is drown'd,
And his and mine loved darling.

[Exit above]

Gonzalo. I' the name of something holy, sir, why stand you
In this strange stare?

Alonso. O, it is monstrous, monstrous:
Methought the billows spoke and told me of it;
The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder,
1680That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass.
Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded, and
I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded
And with him there lie mudded.
1685

Gonzalo. All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,
Like poison given to work a great time after,
Now 'gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you
That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly
And hinder them from what this ecstasy
1695May now provoke them to.